Vision: Inspired by God and moved by the disabling culture, we believe in sustainable human growth through compassionate service with a preferential option for the marginalized.

Mission: Hayden Hall promotes the rights of all the marginalized women and children, and senior marginalized citizens through health, non-formal educational and income generation programs.

Motto: Human Development through Love and Service

The Beginnings…

Hayden Hall began as a drop-in centre for the somewhat more privileged students at St. Joseph’s College, to expose them to the realities of community life and social work. Our founder, Father Edgar P. Burns, moved into the old building with three other St. Joseph’s teachers and ran an evening college for people whose day jobs prevented them from going to university. Then, Darjeeling had a devastating season—landslides, a terrible fire, and refugees from Tibet and Bangladesh. Fr. Burns realized the focus of Hayden Hall needed to change. He wanted more medical programs, nutrition, income-generation. His lifelong dedication to the poorest of the poor became a positive reality in Hayden Hall when the first building was purchased in 1969.